


I'm So Sick Of That Overrated Stuff (That You Think Is Sophisticated)

by SOMETHINREAL



Category: Day6 (Band)
Genre: Art Rivals! Jaebri, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, M/M, a little angsty, essentially they're stupid gays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-07-11 16:32:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15976157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SOMETHINREAL/pseuds/SOMETHINREAL
Summary: If there’s one thing that Brian Kang is certain about, it’s that Jae Park, art major, a year older but in the same year of uni as Brian, has some kind of a vendetta against him. If there’s one thing he’s uncertain about, it’s why.(alternatively:the one where brian is soft and jae is mean because he's stupid).





	I'm So Sick Of That Overrated Stuff (That You Think Is Sophisticated)

**Author's Note:**

> if you follow my twitter, you would know that i thought of this au months ago and its been in my works since then! i hope you enjoy it!!

If there’s one thing that Brian Kang is certain about, it’s that Jae Park, art major, a year older but in the same year of uni as Brian, has some kind of a vendetta against him. If there’s one thing he’s uncertain about, it’s why. (Also, why he always reciprocrates even though he knows that Jae actually isn’t that bad a guy beneath the whole bravado and his snarky comments).

They’ve been at each other’s throats ever since Brian’s first day for God’s knows why. Brian would like to think that he’s a genuinely likeable person, but apparently, not everybody would fall for his soft touch and warm heart. It didn’t matter though. Brian could be cold if he wanted to be. (He never does, but Jae makes him think that he’s maybe a little colder inside than he’d thought in the past). Their arguments are never even truly that; they’re simply _bickering_ ( _li_ _ke an old married couple,_ Dowoon had once said to Brian, to which he threatened to break their friendship permanently) all the time, spitting snarky comments at each other, _about_ each other under their breath. Always trying to outsmart the other person, fighting to be the better artist, living to see the other fail.

Today, he’s working on painting a live model, and, in typical Jaehyung Park nature, Jae had shown up late to class and was forced to work at the station next to Brian’s. It’s good for the fact that he can easily make comments, but bad in the sense that all it takes is Jae’s presence to throw off his game. Something is wrong, something is very wrong here, but Brian can’t decide what.

“The colour is wrong, Kang. Are you _trying_ to make her look like a sheet of paper?”

The skin tone is off. Brian would have figured it out on his own, but Jae always has something quick and annoying to say that will beat Brian to it.

Brian glances at Jae’s painting on its easel, searching for something to make fun of, despite it being a good painting and Brian actually liking it. (Jae is an amazing artist. Brian will never admit this out loud, though).

“Thank you, Park, but I don’t think I asked for your input. You know, with all those lines you made in her skin, she doesn’t look a day over five hundred. The point is to make the creases natural, not to make saggy skin and wrinkles.” Jae huffs out a breath, a tuft of his stupidly bleached blond hair flying up and settling to the side of his eye. He pushes up his glasses, but he has paint on his finger, so it smudges. Brianks smirks. “The idea is to get the paint on the canvas, Park. Or did you still think this was preschool and we were finger painting?”

Another thing that Brian is certain about (though he wishes it was just in his head), the entire campus is always on their heels and waiting for Jae and Brian’s next move. With a campus as boring as it is, they take whatever drama they can get and fucking run with it. They eat every insult, every comeback up, like it’s their own personal web drama. Brian sometimes wishes that he wasn’t the centre of attention all the time, but what can he do?

“Maybe if you just kept your mouth shut and didn’t make up insults that could closely be compared to those of an _actual_ fifth grader, I would be able to focus.”

“If I do recall correctly, you spoke up first,” Brian says. “And for the record, it takes one to know one. Maybe if you weren’t so insistent on wasting your time trying to make me want to squeeze a tube of oil paint over your head, you would be able to carry on with your life without having to think of a shitty one liner for everything I do. You think you’re all high and mighty but take a look at what you’re doing right now. You’re a grown ass man bickering with his classmate over what? His existence?” And he doesn’t hate Jae. At least, not as much as he makes it out like he does, but Jae is just so damn _easy_ to be mad at. Someone laughs under their breath from behind them. They both ignore it.

“Please. You reciprocate every time. Maybe if you didn’t try so hard to think of a comeback each time, you could make things harder for me. You’re so easy, Kang, you know that?”

Brian is many things. But he is _not_ easy. In _any_ sense of the word.

“Maybe instead of waiting for me to clap back, you could try shutting the fuck up for once in your miserable life. I am _not_ easy. But you, Jae Park, are an utter pain in my ass.” Jae opens his mouth to say something, but closes it again, either unable to think of something, or for once, letting Brian go. That’s ridiculous. Jae would never give up that easily.

From the front of the room, their professor forms them that the session is over and they are free to pack up their things and leave. Brian wastes no time in setting his painting at the back of the room and rushing to the sink to clean his palette and brushes, eager to get as far away from Jae Park as possible.

 

-

 

Brian is not really a party person, partially because he hates the smell of stale cigarettes and the music played is usually trash and he would rather not spend his night being surrounded by drunk Uni kids, especially not stepping over their vomit, which somehow ends up everywhere, and mainly because Jaehyung Park _is_ a party person. But regardless, Brian does not like parties but finds himself at one, only because Wonpil dragged him along. _It’s a party thrown by the arts kids,_ he had said, _it won’t be that bad!_

But Brian and Wonpil’s definition of bad are two very different things because it still has the gross sticky, drunk party aspect, just with better music. And it would be great if Wonpil wasn’t currently sat in some guy’s (Jae’s best friend’s!!!) lap, but he is and now Brian doesn’t even have that safety blanket. He tries to ignore it for a while by singing the song playing over the speakers to himself, but it’s hard to ignore when best friend making out with _Jae’s_ best friend, drunk, right beside him. He decides he needs a drink and gets up to go to the table.

But of course, his life is never as easy as it should be, so Jae walks up to it just as Brian gets there.

“God, Kang, Stop singing. You’re going to shatter my cup.” (Jae does not think Brian is a bad singer, in fact, he’s really, really fucking good, not that Jae would ever admit that to him. He’s just being an ass because he has a part to play).

Brian glances over at him. It’s a red solo cup and it’s empty. “Your glass is plastic.”

“ _Exactly_ ,” Jae grins, this stupid, disgusting, (pretty), shit eating grin that makes Brian’s blood boil. “You’re not the partying type,” Jae points out. Is he trying to open conversation? “What’re you doing here? This is uncharted territory for you, wallflower. Is the real world big and scary?” Jae speaks to him in a baby voice, pouting. Of course Jae wouldn’t open conversation with him. He’s too hot headed and ridiculous.

“Maybe you should go ask Wonpil. If you want to find him, he’ll be in the lap of your best friend. Might want to go tend to that. Good night, Park.” Brian leaves just as Jae glances behind him and his eyes widen at the scene on the couch. Yeah. That’s how Brian feels too.

 

-

 

When Brian is walking back to his dorm with Wonpil, who’s significantly more sober after being pulled from Sungjin’s lap, he’s feeling a little iffy about everything. Mainly about Jae, but also because somehow over the course of the night Wonpil managed to make out with Sungjin Park. It’s still gross and Brian still hates it, but he realizes it’s only because Sungjin is friends with Jae and anyone who willingly puts themselves in his presence probably have something wrong with them. Or, at least, that’s what Brian would like to think.

“I wish I could hate him,” Brian says out of the blue. It’s too late to be talking about this, but he’s going to do it anyways. Wonpil cocks his head as if to ask who. “Jae. I wish I could hate him. I don’t. I act like I do, and he really is annoying, but I don’t hate him. I hardly know anything about him.”

This, however, is a lie. Despite them never having a good conversation, Brian knows lots about Jae. He knows that Jae has to have all of his pencils facing one way in his case and all his other stuff facing the other. He knows that Jae’s favourite singer is Sufjan Stevens. He knows that Jae is really caring for his friends, that even though he acts like a dick, he’s always got their backs and loves them. He knows that Jae is lactose intolerant because he’s seen Jae pick all the cheese off of his pizza in the cafeteria and has stood behind him in line at the cafe where he asks for soy milk instead of regular. He knows that Jae grew up in a different country, but moved to Toronto when he was fourteen, just like Brian did. Brian knows that beneath that bravado, Jae is a really nice guy, he just happens to have something against Brian. And Brian doesn’t know what. But it’s fine. He doesn’t need to know what he did to make Jae hate him so much. Because he doesn’t care. It’s _fine_.

“Mmm,” Wonpil hums, nodding his head.

“I just wish that I didn’t have to act like I hate him. I hate the things he says and does, but I don’t hate him.”

“Why does he hate you?” Wonpil asks. He flings himself over Brian, stumbling a little. Maybe he’s more drunk than Brian had anticipated. Perhaps this is good. Perhaps this means he won’t remember what Brian’s about to say.

“I don’t know. But I wish he didn’t.”

 

-

 

It’s almost three in the morning and Jae is absolutely slaving over this project. In retrospect, he doesn’t even know why he’s working on it quite as hard as he is. It’s not like this project is worth more than any of the other major projects, save for some bonus marks if he hands it in before the deadline, nor is it a hard prompt (literally just _eye contact._ Up for interpretation. Their Arts professor was quite the intriguing one if Jae had anything to say about it, but he always digresses because she seemed to like him, even when he was trying to outwit Brian. (Again, in retrospect, she never actually favoured Jae _over_ Brian, simply in favour of favouring the both of them instead, which, as mildly infuriating as it could be, saved Jae’s skin for some of the meaner things he’s done many times)), he’s simply just slaving over it because it needs to be _perfect_.

Dowoon is on Jae’s bed with a lollipop in his mouth, courtesy of the stash that Jae had specifically told him he was not allowed into, but proceeded to loot anyways, with his feet kicked up on the end of Jae’s desk, inches away from knocking over his water cup. Jae had called him over for pizza (half hawaiian for Dowoon, half pepperoni with no cheese for Jae), but he had decided on staying after the fact upon realizing that Jae needed someone to make sure he stayed sane. Jae had tried to deny him, but Dowoon had insisted that he had nothing better to do, with no classes the next day, and he was a night owl anyways. Jae had agreed with a sigh.

“Dude,” Dowoon says, but he must have said it multiple times because he throws his lollipop stick at the side of Jae’s head to grab his attention. Jae scowls, rubbing the side of his head, even though it didn’t hurt through his mop of hair. “I’ve been calling you for the past five minutes. How focused are you?”

“I’m not, I was just ignoring you,” Jae deadpans, rolling his eyes. “Clearly I was very focused, you dumb egg. I couldn’t hear you over the sound of the frustration in my head that my painbrush is shedding into my painting and I can’t pick out the hairs without smudging shit.”

“Dumb egg? And did you mean paintbrush?”

“No,” Jae says, dead serious. “I meant _pain_ brush because it’s causing me immense fucking agony right now. I hate this. I need a drink. Or like, a lap dance, maybe. Or maybe some fucking toast. I would kill for a nicely toasted piece of bread right now. With extra butter. Yes. Maybe some jam. Mmm. I’m living large, Dowoon.”

“You’re lactose intolerant,” Dowoon points out, rolling his eyes. “You _need_ sleep. When was the last time you slept?” Dowoon asks. “And don’t even ask because I’m not going to to give you a lap dance _or_ toast, you personified long bean.” Jae’s shoulders deflate like he was actually thinking about asking Dowoon about it.

“I dunno,” Jae shrugs, tossing his paintbrush into the jar or water. Naturally it splashes everywhere, and naturally, Jae yells _Kobe!_ at the top of his lungs because when he’s sleep deprived he’s basically an overgrown ten year old. “Like, a day or something? Maybe thirty-seven hours and twenty-four minutes, to be exact?” he offers, glancing at the clock on his wall. It’s got a piece of tape with _Leave Jae the Fuck Alone Time_ written on it taped across one to three pm. (Or in other words: Jae’s nap time. Which clearly, he’s missed). It must be for Jae’s roommates Sungjin and Sam. (Why it’s in Jae’s room is beyond Dowoon. If anything it should be in the living room where people can actually see it).

“Jae. You need to sleep.”

“That’s _hyungie_ to you, mister,” Jae slurs tiredly, wiggling a finger at Dowoon before flopping over so that his padded desk chair is tilted all the way backwards and his arms are dangling above his head.

“First of all, we are having a conversation in English, so honorifics are unnecessary. Second, I am not referring to you as hyung when you’re acting six years old.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Jae exclaims, sitting upright. “What kind of six year old dreams of a lapdance at ass o’clock?”

Dowoon sighs, glancing into the centre of Jae’s room like it’s a camera and he’s on The Office. A laugh track plays in his head, and he sincerely hopes that this is all a joke and he’s not actually having this conversation with Jae right now.

“Jae,” he says. “Why are you even slaving so hard over this project? If you should slave over any project, it should be the one coming up in a month before finals. This project doesn’t even matter that much.”

“Yes it does,” Jae says. “I’m proving to that fucking Brian that I’m the better artist.” He’s still slurring, but now it’s less of a sleepy slur and more of am I’m A Very Angry Tired Drunk Right Now slur. Then he adds: “That kid is always in my way. His art is really good so I need to show him that my art is just as good! Even fucking better.” And then Jae scoffs. And then he drops his head against his desk. Then groans. And does a whole bunch of other weird things that make Dowoon question whether his presence actually helped keep Jae sane or not.

“Um, not to be rude, Jae, but it kinda sounds like you’re trying to impress him.”

And Jae kind of cackles, like this weird movie villain cackle that makes Dowoon jump a little, and it’s the whole thing too: shoulders shaking, head tipped back. The whole damn shebang. He must not buy it. (But if Dowoon’s being honest, he’s kinda wished that this had come up sooner because he’s thought that Jae was in love with Brian for the longest time).

“You, my dear friend, are tripping off your _balls_ right now. Wait. Maybe _I_ am. Are you seeing colours?” He gets serious really quick and it startles Dowoon. God, remind him never to accompany Jae after a lack of sleep again. He’s so damn moody. “Kidding, kidding. But really. The day I try to impress Brian is the day I fucking marry Beyonce. It’s never going to happen and if it were to happen, I’m pretty sure I’d be on more drugs than I could count on all my appendages or in a comatose state. Nice try.”

“I mean, I’m just saying. You kind have an obsession with showing Brian that you’re talented.”

“I--! It is not an _obsession_. He reciprocates. It’s mutual.”

“Why do you even hate him?” Dowoon asks, because despite having heard all of the stuff that’s happened from both of their sides _and_ seeing it first hand, Dowoon still doesn’t know why Jae actually hates him. Now that he’s thinking about it, does anybody? Hell, Brian doesn’t even know why Jae hates him.

“I-- because. Because. Um. Because he’s better than me.”

“You can’t even compare your art because you’re two different artists with two different styles. Next.”

“Because… I don’t fucking know.” And it hits Jae then, even though his brain is heavy with exhaustion, that he doesn’t actually know why he hates Brian, just that he always has and that Brian has always hated him back. That had always been it.

“You can’t hate him for no reason, Jae. That doesn’t make any sense.” And Dowoon has a point, but Jae won’t admit it.

“Because… Because. He’s. He’s pretty…?”

“Because he’s pretty,” Dowoon repeats. “You hate Brian Kang because he’s _pretty_?”

“No!” Jae exclaims. Fuck. Where did that even come from? “I mean because his _art_ is pretty.”

“I know you’re high right now, but I know a fuck up when I see one,” Dowoon says.

And Jae runs his mind over what Dowoon had said before. _It sounds like you’re trying to impress him._ But why would Jae ever want to do that? They were supposed to hate each other, it couldn’t be as if-- oh _God_.

“Because,” Jae says, but he doesn’t even know what he’s saying, everything all of the sudden too loud in his ears. “I hate him because I like him.” But it’s all rushed together and unintelligent. Dowoon still seems to understand because he laughs. Fucking laughs at Jae’s moment of self-realization and debating on whether or not tonight is a good night to hurl himself into the mouth of an active volcano because he’s just now realizing that he doesn’t hate Brian Kang, he’s got a fucking _crush_ on him.

“Oh man, you’re something, Jae. I swear. While you have an existential crisis because you like your arch nemesis in a romantic way, I’m going to go crash on the couch. Good night. You should sleep too.”

And poof! Dowoon is gone without Jae even seeing him leave, but maybe it’s because he’s so tired. He can’t recall the rest of the night. All he can remember is slamming his head against his desk and trying not to cry.

 

-

 

Brian is having the worst day. He’d woken up late for the first time in months, meaning that he would be late for class and would have to sprint across campus. This of course, prompted Jae to make more snarky comments, despite him also being late, the both of them walking in at the same time. During class, Brian had tripped and knocked an entire jar of watered down paint onto his almost finished painting, meaning that he would have to redo the entire thing, which would take him days, maybe a week and a half, and he already had a bunch of other projects to complete too. (Surprisingly, Jae hadn’t made any comments on it. He’d actually handed Brian a roll of paper towel to clean it up, which was one) insanely out of character, and two) _insanely out of character._ Who was this clone and what did he do with the real Jae Park? Brian had accepted it reluctantly, and Jae just nodded at his thanks. Seriously. What happened to Jae?)

To top the day off, the campus cafe had run out of whipped cream _and_ caramel sauce so Brian had to take his latte plain. A plain latte. (Small inconvenience or not, the weight of the day had amplified it to one hundred on the shitty scale). He just wants to go home and drink his stupid coffee and cry a little bit to get everything off of his chest and then binge a mixture of reality TV and sad movies (a combination of both RuPaul’s Drag Race and probably some John Green films, because nothing tops a day off like laughing at drag comedy and crying over cancer kids directly after), but of course, this is not how things go. He’s walking to his apartment just off campus as fast as he can with a messenger bag that probably weighs more than he does and a heavy heart (so, like a snail, essentially), when someone calls out for him.

And Brian would know the voice anywhere, because he hears it every weekday in his nine am sharp visual arts course, making comments and riling him up, because it’s the voice that he’s become accustomed to hearing spew nonsense and intelligence all at once, because it belongs to Jae Park. Brian’s day really couldn’t get any worse.

“Hey, Brian! Bri! Wait up!”

And it’s strange, mainly because Brian is accustomed to being called Kang, or kid, or another variable that’s not his first name, but he’s definitely not used to being called a _nickname_ . Bri. _BriBriBri._  He ignores the fact that it makes his chest squeeze and keeps walking, increasing in pace as to avoid Jae, because he’s not in the mood.

“Brian, hey, wait.” Jae must have been running because he’s out of breath when he stops in front of Brian.

“Jae, look, I’m not in the mood right now. What do you want?” Brian lets his shoulders slump. He just wants to be crying over _Call Me By Your Name_ with a tub of ice cream and his stupid coffee in the comfort of his warm home, is that too much to ask for?

“You-- you forgot this in class.” Jae holds out Brian’s Kumamon pencil case and looks away like he’s embarrassed. Brian furrows his eyebrows, confused. Why did Jae run all this way to give it back? Shouldn’t he be sabotaging it in some way by now? Breaking all the tips of his pencils and taking the caps off of his fine-liners so they dry out? He takes it and shoves it into his too-full bag cautiously.

“Thanks, I guess. What now?” Jae cocks his head. Brian huffs out this bitter laugh that Jae doesn’t understand. “Are you going to call me stupid for leaving it? Make fun of me for something else? Hit me with what you got Jae. I’m not fighting back today. But I know that you would never do something nice for me without getting me back about it somehow. I know how you work. So give it to me. I’m done fighting back.”

Brian is so fucking _over_ everything. He just wants to sleep for years and wake up at thirty and have his life all figured out, is that too much to ask for?

When Jae doesn’t say anything, Brian laughs bitterly again. “Go on, make my shitty day worse. Do you not want to now that I’m asking for it? Are you too--”

“Brian, stop,” Jae says. His hand grips Brian’s wrist and squeezes it. It’s weird. Brian finds himself looking down at it and staring. It’s so _weird_. Jae has never ever touched him before. Never. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Brian tells him, shaking his head. There’s a part of him that wants to pull his wrist from Jae’s hand but he doesn’t, instead gripping his coffee tighter. It’s burning his fingers but he can’t find it in himself to care. “You’re Jae Park. You hate me. You don’t apologize for anything you do or say to me. Don’t be stupid.”

“I don’t hate you, Brian. I’m sorry,” Jae says. This is all so fucking _weird_ . What alternate universe did Brian fall into? When did he walk through his closet into a magical land where Jae Park is _nice_? “I thought I did, and I don’t even know why. But I’m really sorry. I’m sorry for always making fun of you. I-- I don’t know what I was thinking. I guess I wasn’t really. You-- You’re super talented and this is really weird because it’s us, but I’m really, really, super sorry for every rude thing I’ve ever said to you over the past few years.”

Brian doesn’t understand what’s happening. “Who the fuck are you and what did you do with Jaehyung Park, my biggest hater?”

“I don’t hate you Brian,” Jae says, “I--” but Brian cuts him off.

“What the actual _fuck_ is going on right now? I literally cannot comprehend what is happening. You, _you_ are apologizing? To _me_ ? Over things you’ve said in the _past_ ? You brought me my pencil case when normal Jae would have sabotaged it in some childish way? You-- you’re being _nice_? What? The? _Fuck_? Explain to me what is happening right now or I swear to God--”

Oh. _Ohhh_.

Jae kisses Brian. Right in the middle of campus where everyone can see it. Brian drops his coffee out of shock. It pools around his and Jae’s feet but he can’t even care about it because his brain is going absolutely fucking haywire. Jae is kissing him. Jae Park, Brian’s one and only enemy, is kissing him on the _mouth_. Willingly. And Brian, well, Brian doesn’t hate it.

Hold up. 

Brian doesn’t hate it. Why doesn’t Brian hate it? He’s supposed to hate Jae, supposed to despise him, even though deep down he knows that he _can’t_ , but why, _why_ doesn’t he hate this? Why does Jae feel so _good?_ Brian can’t think straight because his brain is cloudy with _JaeJaeJaeJae,_  the feeling of it all, of Jae’s hand on the nape of his neck, pulling him in deeper, of his lips, soft but still chapped slightly, tasting of something that closely resembles mint lip balm and apple juice.

“Okay,” Brian says when they pull apart. His hands are still on Jae’s shoulders. He recognizes this, but he can’t feels compelled to move them. “That was… okay.”

“It was okay?” Jae asks. He’s hovering close to Brian, so close it should be weird but it’s not. The situation is weird, but Jae is not. (Actually, Jae is very weird. This whole thing is weird. Can’t Brian have one normal day?)

“No,” Brian says. Jae’s shoulders slump, and he makes a move to step away, but Brian speaks up, just to keep him there. He finds that he likes this newfound closeness more than he probably should. “It was better than that I’m just-- I’m processing. Where-- why-- where did that come from?”

“Do you want to hear a story?” Jae asks, but from his tone Brian can tell that he doesn’t have much of a choice so he just nods. “I got really high last night. But like, not on drugs or anything. On a lack of sleep. I had my friend Dowoon over, right? And I was slaving really hard over Mrs. Jefferson’s latest project, you know. The eye contact one?” Brian nods again, making a mental note to ask Jae about this friend because if it so happens that one of his best friends is also a close friend to Jae Park and he didn’t know about it, one certain Dowoon Yoon will have hell to pay. “Right, so I was absolutely slaving over this project, and I was saying all of this dumb stuff or whatever because I was so tired-drunk. Dowoon finally asked me, _Jae, why are you working so hard on this project if it doesn’t count for that much?_ And I said, _because I need to show Brian that I’m talented too. I need to show him that he’s not the only talented artist in this school_. And you know what Dowoon said to me next? _Not for nothing Jae, but it sounds like you’re trying to impress him._

“And I just kinda laughed at him, like haha okay, why would I ever try to impress Brian? That’s ridiculous, right? And he was like, _well, you kind of have an obsession with showing him you’re good enough,_ so I said, _it’s not an obsession, we just argue a lot, it’s in our nature_ , and finally, fucking finally he asked me why I even hated you. And I sat back for a minute because I didn’t know. What have you done to me that could make me hate you? You’re so nice to everyone else, so why did I hate you? I had no idea. I pondered a bit and came up with an excuse. Something like you’re better than me. Dowoon shut me down pretty quick because we’re both talented and we can’t compare ourselves to each other because we have completely different styles of art. So I pondered a little more, and in my tired-drunk state I blurted that it’s because you’re pretty--”

“You think I’m pretty?” Brian interrupts, eyes soft where he looks at Jae.

“Well, yeah. You’re really pretty. But anyways. I realized that I fucked up, and Dowoon called me out for it because that’s just stupid. That’s not a valid reason to hate someone. I covered that up as though I misspoke, said something about your art being pretty instead, but he called me out again. So then I thought about it more and more, and I thought about what he told me, _it sounds like you’re trying to impress him._ And I realized that I was. I was trying to impress you. I wanted to show you that I’m good too. Wanted you to know that I’m talented too. And then I said: _I hate him because I like him._ And I realized that a) I am the most stupid person to walk this earth and b) that I was crushing so fucking hard and I was so in denial that I just resorted to hating you because I don’t know how to handle emotions. So I’m really sorry. For everything that I’ve done, I’m sorry. If you don’t accept that, I understand, and I’m sorry for kissing you like that but I figured that I would have to do it at least once.”

“Okay,” Brian repeats. Still, his mind is a little cloudy. “That’s, that’s okay.”

“It is?”

“Yeah. I forgive you.”

“You do?”

“Yeah,” Brian says solemnly. He moves one of his hands from Jae’s shoulder to brush a hunk of stupidly blond hair from his eye. (It’s always been stupid but Brian finds what's _really_ stupid is that he likes it a lot more now). “You know, instead of hating me for three years in a row and making me dread going to every lecture, you could have just asked me on a date.”

“I could have?” Jae asks, tilting his head in this way that hits Brian with an appreciation for him for the first time in a long time.

“Yeah, definitely. I was what? Freshly twenty? You were like a tall glass of ice water before you opened your mouth. I would have said yes back then.”

“And what about now?” Jae asks, he’s got this cocky grin that Brian has seen many times before plastered on his face, but he’s never liked it before as much as he does now.

“Now?” Brian pretends to think, but instead of answering, he just kisses Jae again. This time, he’s more sure. This time, he means it. “Does that answer your question?”

“This is weird for us,” Jae says, but he’s grinning.

“A little,” Brian agrees, his own lips curling up into a smile. “But it’s not like the whole campus hasn’t wanted us to get together for years now. I don’t know if we actually have a gossip website for our school or not but after this whole thing there’s going to be hundreds and we’re going to be on the front page. You did know that everybody lives for our drama right?”

“Sadly, I knew. Hard not to notice when everyone is watching us bicker and snickering under their breath. It doesn’t really matter. No more tea for them.”

Brian’s grin widens, and he looks down at his feet. By extension, he eyes the spilled coffee pooling at their feet, which he’s almost forgotten about. He scowls playfully, shoving Jae’s shoulder. “Hey, Park. You owe me a coffee.”

Jae grins. “That, I think I can manage, Kang dearest.”

 

 


End file.
